APC senators move to close rank

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Peter Nwaboshi, said yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would produce the next Senate President should the incumbent, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, be forced to vacate the office.

Nwaboshi, who in an interview with journalists in Abuja decried what he called messages of blackmail against Saraki on account of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), said the PDP was ready to replicate the current system in the United States (U.S.) where the Republican Party is in charge of the parliament while the Democrats are in control of the executive.

He said: “Well, I wish All Progressives Congress (APC) the best of luck if they are making that wild goose chase. But I want you to mark what I’m saying; I was the first to address the press in Port Harcourt and I told them that Saraki was going to win the Senate Presidency and I gave them my reasons. Then, nobody ever thought that Saraki was going to win. People were saying that APC had decided. But it was clear to me that he was going to win and I had to address the press.

“If anybody is thinking that a PDP man is going to vote against a PDP candidate, he is telling you a lie. We have people and we know how to get the people from APC. We will win and that will be very interesting. What is happening in America is going to happen in Nigeria. America has a Republican Senate but the executive is led by Democrats. So, it’s happening in different parts of the world. I can tell you with what’s on the ground that we will produce the next Senate President.”

“The man (Saraki) is going to court and he is obeying the court order. Until it is proven that he is guilty, no amount of blackmail will make us shift our ground and our support for him. In any case, my party, the PDP, we have resolved in our meeting to support him. So, there is no basis for him to resign.”

Nwaboshi’s statement came barely a week after all senators elected on the platform of the APC met to get united in support of the Federal Government policies.

Although the meeting held in the house of former Sokoto State governor, Senator Ali Wammako in Abuja, was initially said to have been called with a motive to get all senators of APC united for Saraki, it was later learnt that senators at the meeting were more concerned about the embarrassment the disunity was causing the ruling party in the Senate.

According to sources close to the meeting, the lawmakers wanted a situation in which the interests of government would be promoted at all times in the Upper Chamber.

The meeting was said to have resolved to work in the interest of the party to ensure that the opposition party (PDP) never had its way on any matter.